Isaiah 60-62

Introduction

Let me start by reading a little bit from Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter 5. Jesus says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. When he says, you’ve heard that it was said of those of old you shall not murder, he’s talking about the old law, right? And he says, but here’s the way it really is. He’s talking about the new.

Anybody ever heard that before? Is that a reasonable representation of what Jesus said? Well, the the old covenant was all about heart, too. They just missed that. That kind of attitude shows an unfamiliarity with the prophets. Because that’s really what Isaiah was saying in chapter 58. Yes, you delight to know my ways. You seek me daily. You’re fasting. You’re keeping the commandments. But in your questions on page 136, Robert asks, What did they do that God saw not nor took knowledge, nor took knowledge of?

What were they doing that God didn’t pay any attention to worship and fast is what I had. Yeah, they were afflicting their soul. That was commanded on the Sabbath. They’re keeping the commandment. They were fasting, they were humbling themselves before God, right?

Parents know that when they can coerce their children to obey them, and they say, I am sorry, or they put back that which they took, but their neck is all stiff.

It’s not really pleasing to the parent, is it? The parent wants the heart to humble itself. That’s what God’s wanted all along. He hasn’t changed. Yes, he wants that now. Yes, he wanted it then, and he made it plain. Now we have to ask ourselves the question. Can we, quote, keep the commandments and meet with the saints and not murder and uh those kind of things? Be faithful and be here three times a week or two times a week. I don’t think God’s happy with us doing stuff grudgingly. And that’s the point. We could do all those things and God take no notice of it. Yeah, we’re not obedient in the heart. It’s no different now than it was then. So we we have the same charge.

God wants our hearts. We’re to serve the Lord with all our minds, soul, and heart. What’s the first commandment with promised?

To love your Lord your God with all your heart, soul. Number one, the heart. And it’s always been that way. Why did they fast? And Isaiah 58, why did they fast? Question number two.

Sharpen tension and striving and describing. Anyone ever do that today? You ever seen somebody that comes to church and is faithful? They’re there every time. And they’re just always stirring up trouble. If there’s one passage or another, they’re trying to stir up contention over it, and they’re arguing about it. And they come to church for strife and debate. They love that stuff. If that’s what’s in your heart, and that’s why you’re coming. Now I’m not saying we can’t argue about the scriptures, okay? But you understand. There are some people that just love to argue more than they care about the answer. If that’s our purpose for coming to church, I don’t think God’s happy with us. Because he wants us to come to church to edify one another, to build one another up.

Right? To be obedient, to humble ourselves before Him. So the point is, just like anything else, we can obey the outward command, but that’s not sufficient in and of itself. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want us to obey the commands, yes. And we can’t argue that, well, our intentions are good, God. Because he still demands obedience. It’s got to be both in the action and the heart. Number four, their light would rise in, I put the darkness. Robert’s got the obscurity. That’s King James wording. I don’t want my light to be obscured. But he’s talking about light contrasted with darkness. The light would rise in contrast to the darkness if they did what? Hungry and hungry and afflicted. Why is that important? Because that’s something God wants.

He said over and over again. Things like uh he who lends or gives the poor lends to the Lord. Right? Okay. So what separates men from God from Isaiah chapter 59, verses 1 and 2? Iniquities our sins. It’s a good verse to remember Isaiah 59, 1 and 2. Okay. And we already talked about the thought question, and that’s focus point of Isaiah 59, 1 and 2. It’s our sins that separate us from God, not anybody else’s.

Do they have an answer? I think they would argue that we don’t inherit the guilt of Adam’s sin, but we inherit the propensity to sin because we’re children of Adam. And the New Testament talks about sinful nature. That’s NIV. Other translations talk about the flesh. The nature of the flesh.

But the Calvinist takes it even farther and says that our nature, our sinful nature, is such that we cannot come to God, even if we wanted to. Which flies in the face of what Romans says in the first chapter. That God holds them accountable, but don’t come to God because what may be known of him is clear to all from the creation. So it’s clear from Romans chapter 1 that what man needs to know in order to come to God is available. And how could God otherwise hold them, the Gentiles accountable and judge them if they couldn’t come to Him? It makes no sense to me. So we move on to chapters 60, 61 and 62. These are beautiful chapters. And I don’t have a lot of slides because they’re really simple.

It’s really easy to follow. But if we look back in the context at 58 and 59, we see the key is outward obedience without the heart is useless. Obedience must value what God values. And you remember when Jesus said in John 4 23, the hour comes and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. You ever thought about what it means to worship God in spirit? Does that mean we’ve got to be slain in the Holy Spirit to worship him? No. I think he’s talking about you’ve got to worship him from the heart. And it’s got to be truthful, but it’s got to be from the heart as well. And so in Matthew, the New Testament would say, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others.

1. Arise, for Your Light Has Come

The purpose of fasting is not so others can see you. Purpose of fasting is to humble ourselves before God. So don’t let it even be seen. But let it be between you and your Father. Matthew 22, teacher, which is the great commandment. Love the Lord with your heart, your soul, and all your mind. That’s Old Testament, right? Yes, heart was important under the Old Testament. Absolutely. And there’s no peace for the wicked. But a great covenant for those who obey. In that context, he gets to chapter 60. And he starts off and he says, Arise and shine for your life has come. Now this is a repeated theme. You see, put back with me in chapter 52 and verse 1. He says, Awake, awake, put on your strength, those iron.

Call to his people. Awake. Prepare. In chapter 54 and verse 1, sing, O barren, you who have not born, break forth into singing. And now he says, Arise, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord is risen upon you. What is the light? Where’s the light come from? Light comes from God, but he’s speaking of Christ here. Okay. The light comes from God. He says, Your light has come. Does that mean the people now are a light? No, it means your light has risen over you. The light is God. Although the earth is in deep darkness, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And the Gentiles will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

2. The Context Is Messiah

The key to this whole section, these three chapters are understanding. What is the context? John said it’s the Messiah. How do you know that? Could he not be talking about the brilliant return from Babylon? If we take the New Testament in context, he can’t be talking about anyone else. Okay. Well, let’s look at a few things. The phrase, your light has come. We go back to Isaiah 9 2. This is not a new thing he’s talked about. This is a repetition of the theme in chapter 9 when he said, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. What was the great light? Well, from that chapter, we know it’s clearly Messiah. It just cannot be misunderstood. We know in 1 Peter 2 9 that God called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

What’s his marvelous light? Messiah. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God in him was life, and the life was the light of man. Over and over again, this great light has been uniformly referred to as Messiah. But not just that. The Gentiles shall come to your light. That’s a thing you don’t hear in the prophets under the old covenant. You just don’t see that. Yes, they had some Gentiles that came and became proselytes. True. But when the prophets talk about Gentiles coming in, it’s uniformly referring to times of Messiah. Isaiah 2 2. The mount of the Lord’s house shall be established and all nations shall flow to it. That was really early on. When is that going to happen?

Again, going back to the context, it’s clearly times of Messiah. He says, You shall beat your swords into plowshares. When is that true for the Israelites? As a physical nation, it was never really true, was it? They were constantly in battles with their neighbors. But it’s certainly true about times of Messiah. It’s not a physical warfare we fight, it’s a spiritual warfare. Isaiah 11, another chapter which is overwhelmingly messianic and uniformly agreed to by virtually everybody. In that day there shall be a root of Jesse.

David’s descendant, it’s Messiah, who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles shall seek him. When did the Gentiles seek him? In times of Messiah. Isaiah 49, 5. And now the Lord says, Who formed me from the womb to be his servant, clearly messianic in the context, to bring Jacob back to him. Servant is not Jacob, because the servant’s going to bring Jacob back to him. It’s too small a thing just to do that. I’m going to give him as a light to the Gentiles. Coming in as the Gentiles, uniformly associated with Messiah.

So, on top of that, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Well, in the context, the very next chapter, and I think this is probably what John was alluding to. Chapter 61 starts off with the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to profane liberty for the captives. There’s no real break in the context here between 60 and 61. But this is the very passage in 61 verses 1 through 3. When Jesus stood up to read in the synagogue, he was handed the scroll of Isaiah, and he looked and he found this passage, and he read it, apparently. And then said, Today this is fulfilled in your hearing.

So we have the comments of Jesus saying, This is talking about him. Which fits the context. I don’t believe he took it out of context.

So the light is Jesus. Gentiles are going to come. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus. Till our righteousness goes forth as brightness. Chapter 62 talks about you will be called by a new name. Well, okay. So that’s my arguments for the context being messianic.

3. The Wealth of the Gentiles Shall Come to You

As we read through this, you see some of the same themes we’ve seen before. For instance, verse 4. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart will swell with joy, because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. Does that remind you of anything we’ve read recently?

Just a few chapters back, look with me in chapter 54. Starting in verse 1, really, when he says, saying, Oh, Baron, you who are not born, that is, children are going to be presented to you that are not yours. You who have not travailed a child. Why sing? Well, because more are the children of the desolate than the woman of the married. That’s not a good situation, is it? It doesn’t seem right. But he says, in response to that, enlarge the place of your tent. Let them stretch out the curtains. Do not spare, lengthen your cords, threaten your stakes, for you shall expand to the right and the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited. In other words, my people are going to grow.

Grow significantly until there’s no room for them. And so when he says, your sons will come from afar, he’s talking about those coming into the church, I believe. Because plainly, he’s a banner for the Gentiles, and your sons come from afar, from the nations. And my people will swell. And the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The sea is just simply a symbolic of the great sea of mankind. That is all peoples, all nations, all flesh. The wealth of the Gentiles. And the multitude of camels shall cover your land. The dromedaries of Midian and Epha. So we’re talking about what we would call today the Arabic nations. And so when you see this, and he says the wealth of the Gentiles are going to come in, even these uh nomadic lands.

Some commentators look at this and say, This is yet to be fulfilled. If it was, it wouldn’t be surprising. He’s not talking about a point in time here. He’s talking about a process. Yes, the wealth of the nations will come to me. Didn’t happen overnight, did it? Were Christians uniformly accepted by all the nations in 100 AD? No. They’re persecuted by the Romans. But the time came when the persecution stopped. The time came when even the Roman Emperor acknowledged Christianity and allowed it to flourish. But even at that point, did all nations accept Christ? We see things even as recent at our time, such as over in Japan, where before the world wars, the Emperor of Japan was considered a god. Not true anymore.

Things change over time, over many years. So this is not a point in time where it’s all finished. I think this is an ongoing process that throughout the years, this is to be the tendency.

They shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you. The rams of Neboth will minister to you, and they shall extend with substance on my altar. And I don’t think he’s talking about all these will now worship me at an altar, but I think he’s talking about the altar as symbolic of worship. The day is coming where the nations will accept me and they will worship me. And so this is figurative language, I believe. Who are those that fly like a cloud, verse eight, and like doves to their roosts? Surely the coastlands will wake for me, and the ships of Tarshish will come first to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them to the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.

The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, and I believe that’s what he’s talking about. Those that build the walls of God’s house are those that build the church under Messiah. And their king shall minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be opened continually. They shall not be shut night or day. That men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles and their kings in procession. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined. Now that’s interesting. Because it’s a turnabout. When you look at what Jeremiah said concerning the king of Babylon, he said, This is what God says.

I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, my servant. If any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, and put its neck under the yoke, I will punish that nation. They had been conquered by Babylon. Well, now it’s turnabout. Now God says, nation and kingdom which will not serve my people, those nations shall be utterly ruined. This is good news to those that were in captivity and under Babylon’s thumb. Things are going to change. God has not forsaken his people. He will bless his people. And so he says, the glory of Lebanon shall come to you. The cypress, the pine, the box tree together to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

Well, think about why was Lebanon important.

And why was that important? Because it built the temple. Yeah, it built a temple. So the glory of Lebanon came to build God’s temple. Is it going to be any different in times of Messiah? Resources of the nations are going to come to build my temple. Even the glory of Lebanon. So it’s a figure, I believe. This is highly figurative language. But you see the symbol, it’s an easy symbol. And the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and all those who despise you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet, and they shall call you the city of the Lord Salah, the Holy One of Israel. Wow. God’s got something great planned. He still does. He’s not done with his plan.

4. The Lord Will Be Your Everlasting Light

He’s still working on it. Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you. I will make you an eternal excellence, enjoy of many generations, and you shall drink dry the milk of the Gentiles, and shall milk the breast of kings. I think all he’s talking about is that the wealth of kings shall be brought to you. It’s a figure. And you shall know that I, the Lord am your redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Instead of bronze, I will bring gold, instead of iron, I will bring silver, instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron, and I will make your officers peace and your magistrates’ righteousness. Well, what had they had before this with officers and magistrates? Corrupting, right? Corruption. In fact, if you look back at see.

Yeah, he had a lot of things to say about negative things to say about leaders in the nation, because he had led them in ways that weren’t good. But he says, This is going to change. I’m going to give you leaders that will lead in peace and righteousness. No more violence, no wasting nor destruction within your borders, but you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise. Big turnabout. The sun shall no longer be your light by day. There’s another clue that all this language is highly figurative. For unless we’re out of this world, the sun’s gonna rise and set.

Is he talking about times when we’re left this world?

I don’t believe so. Although you see similar language in uh places like Revelation 21. Govern Revelation 21. That’s the answer to that question. Yeah. Yeah, I’m cheating. Revelation 2123. This is talking about the new Jerusalem and the glory of it. Verse 22, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were his temple. That’s true today, isn’t it? And the city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated, and the Lamb is its light, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its life.

So very similar language, I believe it’s highly figurative, not intended to be literal. But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and the good and your God, your glory, your son will no longer go down, as it appeared to have done in Babylon. Nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your morning shall be ended. Also your people shall all be righteous, they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting.

That language is interesting because to those that were in Babylon, they would have known the words of Jeremiah. Flip over with me to Jeremiah 31.

And verse 28.

Back up to verse 27. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, the seed of beast, and it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict. And those in Babylon have been witness of that happening.

Just as I did that, so now I will watch over them to build and plant. So when he says, the people of my planting, that’s in contrast to the judgment that had happened when they had gone into Babylon. And the work of my hands that I may be glorified. A little one will become a thousand, a small one a strong nation. I the Lord will hasten it in its time.

5. To Proclaim Liberty to the Captives

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives. Remember earlier in Isaiah, we made the point when he said that he, the servant, would not break the bruised reeds.

That was his mission to heal, not to judge. To proclaim liberty to the captives. Who is Jesus proclaiming liberty to the second? Pardon? Well, where captives are sinned. Okay. Places like Galatians 5 1. If you look over there, he says, stand fast, therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Are we are mankind in slavery without God in slavery to sin? Absolutely.

Jesus has come to set us free from the law of sin and death, which is bondage into sin. So yes, he has come to proclaim liberty to the captives. And the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And commentators almost universally talk about the year of Jubilee. To proclaim the acceptable year is to proclaim the year of Jubilee. What’s the year of Jubilee? It’s when all the slaves were set free. So it’s a tremendous and joyful occasion. The day of vengeance for our God to comfort all those who born, to console those who mourn in Zion and give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.

There it is again. That he may be glorified. They shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. It sounds like it should be literal. And certainly that was true when they came back from Babylon. And it may be that the prophet has in mind both occasions. But look at the context when you get to verse 8. For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth, and I will make with them an everlasting covenant. You know when he says everlasting covenant, what’s he talking about? It’s times of Messiah. Jeremiah said, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the old covenant, which they broke.

To the Jew, he would say, We already have an everlasting covenant. The law of Moses was an everlasting covenant. True. That was the language given. God made the covenant. He called it an everlasting covenant. But it came with terms and conditions, which they broke, Jeremiah says. So I will make a new covenant. So what covenant he’s talking about? If he’s going to make the covenant with them in the future, I believe he’s talking about the covenant that Jeremiah was talking about. The new covenant. So in that context, if it’s clearly Messianic, of necessity, I believe, verses four through seven are figurative about times of Messiah. How would you describe the times of Messiah? So that the Jew would understand it in the same language you would as describing their coming out of Babylon.

When God blesses his people as they come out of Babylon, what is going to happen? They’re going to multiply, they’re going to rebuild the waste places and so forth. How are you going to describe the new kingdom? It’s going to be like that, only better. He says in verse 5, strangers shall stand and feed your flocks. The sons of the foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine dressers, and yes, I believe workers in God’s kingdom have come from all nations. And you shall be named the priests of the Lord. First Peter 2 talks about all Christians today are priests of the Lord. Absolutely. Men shall call you servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast.

Instead of your shame, you shall have double honor. Now, of course, we remember this is also as a reversal because in chapter 40 and verse 2 he had talked about you have paid double for your sins. Not that they had paid twice what the penalty should be. But there was a penalty paid for sin, not only because they rebelled, but because they knew better. And they bore a responsibility. But now, in place of the double penalty, they will have double honor. Instead of confusion, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore, in their land they shall possess double everlasting joy will be theirs. And verse 89, the everlasting covenant and their descendants, verse 9 shall be known among the Gentiles. All who see them shall acknowledge them, they are the posterity, whom the Lord has blessed.

Now, general people regard the church that way. These are people that God had blessed.

Because for many, many years they were despised by people. They were obviously dispersed and didn’t have a homeland until very, very, very recently.

6. A New Name: Your Land Shall Be Married

As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and a bride adorns herself with the jewels, for as the earth bring forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Now, from that description, he launches into chapter 62, and the language just gets more elevated. For Zion’s sake, I will not hold my peace. For Jerusalem’s sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory. And you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. New name. Well, again, I believe the commentators universally will agree that the new name is likely referring to Messianic times.

We know in the book of Acts that Christians were given a new name at Antioch. What was significant about Antioch? It’s the first real place where you had Jews and Gentiles together. And they were accepted. They were called by a new name. Christians.

Describing the turnabout. When they were taken into Babylonian captivity, the land was desolate. They were described as in widowhood. But when they came back from captivity, they would build up the waste places and so forth. Well, what’s it going to be like when Christ frees us from sin? It’s going to be that kind of joy. The kind of joy that they had when they came out of captivity in Babylon. And so you as a nation will no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land anymore be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hepsibah. Don’t hear many hepsibas today, because we tend to name our children what sounds good not by the meaning, but the meaning is literally my delight is in her. Usually that’s in your footnotes.

And your land shall be called Beulah. Again, not too many people called Beulah today, but a generation back, yes? Beulah literally means married. For the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married. He explains it right there. Well, that’s in contrast to their description in Babylon as being a time of widowhood. And when they came to God and returned to the land, he considered them married. What’s it going to be like in the Messianic kingdom? The description is Christ or the church is the bride of Christ. You set marriage relationship. Your land shall be married. The description of the church is the bride of Christ. As a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you. The passage I was looking for earlier is in chapter 56 and verse uh 11.

This is in contrast again to the previous situation. In chapter 56 and verse 10, talking about uh responsible leaders of Israel, where he called them beasts that somebody mentioned. Verse 10, his watchmen are blind, they are ignorant, they’re all dumb dogs, dogs. Yes, they are greedy dogs, verse 11, which never have enough. They are shepherds which cannot understand, they all look to their own way, each one for his own gain. But in Messiah’s kingdom, his leaders will be married to the church. I think what he means is they will have a desire for the church to build it up and to provide for it, to manage it, to husband it. In fact, interestingly enough, if you look in the Greek interlinear for the Old Testament, that word Mary is literally Baal.

Baal actually just literally meant literally husband. Your son shall husband you’re literally what I believe he’s saying. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. This is tremendous, I think. I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, which will never hold their peace day or night. Who’s the eye there? I think he’s talking about God. God says, I have set watchmen that will not hold their peace day or night. And so what do we see when Messiah comes along? We see people like Simeon and Anna. What are Simeon and Anna doing? You remember? They’re day and night in the temple, praying for God to bring Messiah. And Simeon was promised he wouldn’t die before his own. Yes. And so, verse 7, he says, You who make mention of the Lord, that is those who pray, I believe, do not keep silent.

Give him no rest until he establishes the mixed Jerusalem praise in the earth. Don’t stop praying. The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by the strength of his arm, or the arm of the strength, surely I will no longer give your grain to be food for your enemies. And the sons of the foreigner will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored. And those who have gathered it shall eat it and praise the Lord. I think it’s plainly a figure of at least the time of Gideon, where the Midianites would swoop down at time of harvest, take all that they had, and they seemed to be helpless. Well, they were turned to idolatry, they’d rejected him. So Gideon came forth, a savior from God, and said, No, this shall not stand.

And he fought the Midianites. That’s the kind of victory that God is saying is symbolic of Messianic times. I will be your uh I will fight your battles, and uh I will give you the victory. Those who have brought it together, they shall drink it in my holy courts. Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people, build up the highway, take out the stones. Instantly you think of chapter 40, verses 1, 2, and 3, the voice crying in the wilderness, prepare, make a way for the God of Israel. Cut down the mountains, build up the valleys, make the way straight for our God for his people. Indeed, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world. Say to the daughter of Zion, surely your salvation is coming.

Conclusion

Behold, your reward is with him. I think it’s clearly messianic. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. What are the people of the church called in the New Testament? The redeemed? They call by many names. Priesthood. Royal priesthood. Priests. Saints, saints. What do saints mean? And churches above the price. What does saints mean? Sanctified God. Those who are sanctified. What does sanctify mean? Made clean. Means to be made holy they shall be called the holy people same kind of language isn’t it interesting the redeemed of the Lord you shall be called sought out a city not forsaken that is not a widow not a widowhood but your land shall be married beautiful pictures highly figurative of the times of Messiah it just ought to make your heart leap in joy inside because these are beautiful pictures what kind of God do we serve the Holy One of Israel where’s our future at me you look around what’s gonna happen we’re gonna die we’re all gonna die what have I got then if my hope is all here who do I serve the God that has shown victory over death what’s his kingdom like it’s married he will fight my battles beautiful pictures that’s the kind of God I want to follow I thank you for your time looking ahead next less